My Bookclubs

My Own Bookclubs

My neighborhood book group has been meeting one Wednesday evening each month, more or less, since January of 2004, having a great time discussing books and, in the process, considering our own lives. When we needed a name for registering with local book stores, we chose … the Wednesday Sisters! (Can you tell it’s a really supportive group of friends? You can read more about us on Books on the Brain.) I also love Margie’s 4th Tuesday Book Club at the Books Inc. Palo Alto Town & Country location; Margie picks some interesting reads!

My neighborhood group is now reading:
12/17 – Holiday Book Swap!

And our past books have been:

10/17 – The Old Ways: A Journey on Foot by Robert MacFarlane
9/17 – Outline by Rachel Cusk
8/17 – Rules of Civility by Amor Towles
7/17 – Version Control by Dexter Palmer
6/17 – Beach Read Book Swap
5/17 – The Vegetarian by Han Kang
4/17 – Big Magic by Elizabeth Gilbert
3/17 – Commonwealth by Ann Patchett
2/17 – My Name Is Lucy Barton by Elizabeth Strout
1/17 – the association of small bombs by karan mahajan

12/15 – Holiday Book Swap!
11/15 – The Martian by Andy Weir
10/15 – Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
9/15 – The Race for Paris by yours truly
7/15 – Station 11 by Emily St. John Mandel
5/15 – Euphoria by Lily King
4/15 – Family Life by Akhil Sharma
2/15 – All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr
1/15 – We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves by Karen Joy Fowler

12/14 – Holiday Book Swap!
11/14 – Clash Of Civilizations Over An Elevator In Piazza Vittorio by Amara Lakhous
10/14 – The Lady, the Chef, and the Courtesan by Marisol
9/14 – The Orphan Master’s Son by Adam Johnson
8/14 – The Good Lord Bird by James McBride
4/14 – The Love Song of Johnny Valentine by Teddy Wayne
3/14 – The Beauty of Ordinary Things by Harriet Chessman
2/14 – Naked by Betsy Franco
1/14 – Life After Life by Kate Atkinson

12/10 – The Great Holiday Book Swap!
11/10 – Sarah’s Key by Tatiana de Rosnay
9/10 – The Road from Coorain by Jill Ker Conway
8/10 – The May Trees by Annie Dillard
7/10 – The Lotus Eaters by Tatjana Soli
4/10 – Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert
3/10 – The Help by Kathryn Stockett
2/10 – To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee- Book and a Movie Meeting
1/10 – The Last Summer of the World by Emily Mitchell

I’m sure there are lots of ways to have fun with a Book Club at the holidays, but the Wednesday Sisters Book Group does a book swap in lieu of a December Meeting every year, and it is a ton of fun:

Step 1: Everyone brings a book they enjoyed reading (not one we’ve ever read for the group), wrapped in swanky paper and bows. (Mine is always the pathetic-looking one; I clearly flunked Fancy Wrapping 101!)

Step 2: We pile the presents in the center of our circle, then we draw numbers. No, wait! First, we pour whatever we are drinking and nosh a little. (The first year, we had margaritas at a local restaurant, but after that we decided we were best off doing pot luck at someone’s house so we could all walk home.) Okay, so thenwe draw numbers (nothing fancy, just numbered scraps of paper thrown into a bowl).

Step 3: The person who drew #1 gets to pick and open a present. Feeling and shaking of unopened packages is definitely permitted.

Step 4: Whoever brought that book tells us all a little about it.

Step 5: #2 then gets a choice: to opened another package or to steal #1’s book. If she chooses to steal, #1 opens a second book.

Step 6: #3 then gets the open or steal choice, and can steal any of the books that have been opened. If she steals, say, #1’s book, #1 can steal #2’s book or open a new package.

We go on like that until everyone has a book, with the caveat that once a book has been stolen 3 times, it can’t be stolen again, except that…

Step 8: Once everyone has an opened book, #1 can put her book in the center and steal any book she wants, even the thrice stolen ones, with again the 3 steal limit. At which point the stealing goes on until someone wants the book in the center.

It’s really great fun, and we end up knowing a lot about new books we might read, even if we didn’t get to take them home.